Great ideas from fellow educators
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Re-imagining Your Teaching by Focusing on Constant Student Feedback
If you peek inside most introductory science survey course lecture halls during class, what are you most likely to see? I would wager you will see a professor standing in front of a projected screen or giant white board delivering information to a relatively full—but...
Ready to Revise Your Class Attendance Policy?
Are you satisfied with the number of students who attend your class regularly? Is your Friday class meeting disappointingly lower in attendance compared to your Wednesday class session? Maybe it is time to consider implementing an attendance-required policy in...
Strategies to Get Feedback from Students About Your Teaching
Ever wonder what you students think of your class? Think students might be able to help improve your teaching? Professors all too often assume that their novice students are not sufficiently sophisticated to help a professor improve their teaching. This is why so...
Getting Students to Understand Your Syllabus
Does it seem like your students never bother reading the syllabus? A quick Google-image search of “it’s in the syllabus” will reveal countless cartoons-some humorous and some not so humorous-suggesting that students insufficiently paying attention to the syllabus is...
Creating the Most Effective Final Exam Review Sheet, If You Must
“What is going to be on the final exam?” That’s the most common question I get from students this time of year and, frankly, it makes me want to pull my hair out! You see, I’ve spent all term meticulously outlining the major course concepts, carefully leading my...
Remember to Explain WHY You Assign Homework
Do you ever hesitate giving your students homework? By middle of the term, my students too often groan in agony when I distribute their next homework assignment. Despite their protests, I am convinced homework is worth the time students devote to completing it. I...
Checklist to Help You Avoid These Common PPT Mistakes
A lecture supported by a computer-driven and projected PowerPoint presentation of bullet points is the dominant form of instruction across most college and university classrooms. Unquestionably, there are bright points of innovation--or regressive chalk and...
Get Better Student Buy-In Using a ‘Negotiated Syllabus’
Many faculty dread spending time on the first day of class going over the syllabus. That’s OK, because students usually hate hearing professors read the syllabus to them too! But, what if the first day of class could be different? What if instead you could have a...
Higher Level Exam Questions That Are Still Quick to Grade
Multiple-choice exams are often the least preferable of exam formats, because it can be really challenging to uncover exactly what students now understand and what they still struggle with. At the same time, for those of us teaching large enrollment science classes,...
The Secret to Improving Your Future Course Evaluations Now
The end-of-the-term student course evaluations of faculty are soon to be upon us. Some of us worry and fret over them, wondering how scores will impact our performance evaluations. Others of us look forward to them with great anticipation, hoping for some...
Using Text Messages to Better Communicate with Students
Have you been thinking that using social media in your teaching might be a good idea but have no idea how to start with so many options? That’s the way I’ve felt too: Should I tweet on Twitter, post on Facebook, blog on WordPress, or Tumblr or Pinterest or Instagram,...
Tips for Managing Email from Students
Although the mythology that students give highest marks to the easiest professors is ubiquitous, the research on teaching evaluations is clear—students give the best evaluations to those professors who students perceive will help them learn and follow an organized...
Simple Moves to Immediately Improve Your Syllabus
Each time the new term starts, it is time for professors to update their course syllabi. Sometimes I make radical changes in my syllabus, instituting new grading schemes or dramatically changing the sequence of topics. However, most often, I am making only minor...
